Net-Neutrality: Concept, Stake Holders, Impacts, Benefits and Limitations

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The various stake holders have different interests in the performance of the Internet as well as the resulting quality of applications running on the net.

The intense debate and arguments can be broadly summarised as follows, with respect to those in favour of Net Neutrality and those against.

Arguments In Favour of Net Neutrality

- Freedom of access and choices fundamental right

- Inability of smaller OTTs to compete

- Control should not be at the mercy of few corporations (Telecom Service Providers and Internet Service Providers).

- A Net which is neutral, stimulates competition, drives entrepreneurship and thus promotes innovation

- Helps prevent unfair pricing practices.

- Promotes the spread of ideas, and protects freedom of speech.

- No blocking or discrimination against any applications or content

- Net Neutrality is crucial for small business owners, start-ups and entrepreneurs

- ISPs are by definition the gatekeepers to the Internet, and without Net Neutrality, they would seize every possible opportunity to profit from that gatekeeper control. They can build biases & Promote own services.

- TSP and ISPs could carve the Internet into fast and slow lanes, making the normal internet experience on the slow lanes poor.

- No Restrictions/Censorship

- Individual Privacy will be at risk

- Without Net Neutrality, ISPs can give preferential treatment to the content they profit from.

- Consumers are entitled to competition among network providers, application and service providers, and content providers

- Regulation Essential for countering data prioritization by ISPs

Against Net Neutrality

- TSP & ISP regulated whereas Content and Application Providers (CAP) are not, hence there is no level playing field

- Market Demand should control the priority of content on the internet.

- Reduced ability to offer tiered services

- OTT services free riding on Telecom Network

- TSPs and ISPs argue that they should be incentivized to invest in infrastructure that results in a faster internet.

- New services like Video are clogging the network, and to ensure QoS network has to be expanded, for which financial resources has also to be committed by the Content providers.

- Network & traffic management tools help to improve the Internet experience

- Engage in pro-competitive management techniques to alleviate congestion, ameliorate capacity constraints, and enable new services.

- Enable additional services to supplement broadband Internet access, including bandwidth tiers, quality of service, security, anti-virus and anti-spam services, network management services.

Net-Neutrality - Puritan vs Practical

Every country has its own perspective on the concept of Net Neutrality. There are two extreme views. According to the principle of neutrality, every user must have access, via the internet and, more generally, electronic communications networks (regardless of distribution platform) to all of the content, services and applications carried over these networks, regardless of who is supplying or using them, and in a transparent and non-discriminatory fashion.

Putting this principle into practice comes up against a variety of constraints, such as having to protect the networks from attacks, along with traffic problems, the need to install mechanisms to comply with legal obligations etc., Accordingly the traffic management practices adopted may be acceptable or not acceptable from the Net Neutrality point of view.

Aspects in varying degrees considered as Acceptable or Non Acceptable levels of net neutrality is summarized in the table below

Aspects

Acceptable

Not Acceptable

BLOCKING

Blocking of limited contents

- illegal content

- spams, viruses etc

Blocking of rival’s content

THROTTLING

Throttling of limited contents to facilitate traffic management e.g. P2P traffic so that acceptable level of service can be obtained by all users

Deliberate throttling for commercial gains

TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT

Traffic management as part of Network Management During periods of congestion

Deliberate slowing of the traffic

PRIORITIZATION

Prioritization of traffic e.g. Emergency services

Paid prioritization

QoS

Define as per needs of different applications

Differentiated quality of service for few customers

Tariff

Non-discriminatory based on volume, time, speed

Based on quality of content

Different stakeholders have different perspective in regard to Net Neutrality as viewed from their end. The various aspects of Net neutrality as viewed by each stake holder are highlighted below.

Net-Neutrality from the Consumer Perspective

- Right to access & convey information on best available access

- Consumer privacy : Observation of user behavior on the Internet used for traffic management like Deep packet inspection, and data